This invention concerns a method for treating cardiac arrhythmias utilizing 9, 9-disubstituted fluorenes.
Cardiovascular disorders are the cause of thousands of deaths each year. Cardiac arrhythmias are among such disorders. Arrhythmias are irregular cardiac activity characterized by irregular beating of the heart. Typical arrhythmias include VF or ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, auricular flutter and auricular fibrillation.
A number of drugs are known which display varying degrees of antiarrhythmic activity. Quinidine, procainamide, lidocaine and digitalis are perhaps among the most widely used antiarrhythmic agents. Recent research has developed improved antiarrhythmic agents such as aprindine, bretylium and certain diphenylbutanolamines; see U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,328.
Cusic, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,485, discloses certain fluorene-9-carboxylic acid hydrazides which allegedly are useful as antiarrhythmic agents. Numerous other fluorenes are known in the art, but none are reported to have antiarrhythmic activity. Stack, for example, discloses several 9-(3-tertiary aminopropyl)-9-hydroxyfluorenes which are intermediates leading to 9-alkylidene fluorenes, which in turn are neuroleptic agents; see British Pat. No. 960,758. Lowrie, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,657, discloses 9-dialkylaminoalkylfluorene-9-N-substituted carboxamides which allegedly are anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agents.
An object of this invention is to provide a method for treating cardiac arrhythmia with 9-aminoalkylfluorenes which are 9-hydroxy, 9-cyano, 9-aminocarbonyl or 9-substituted aminocarbonyl compounds.